Access Utah

On Wednesday’s Access Utah we’ll talk with acclaimed law professor and historian, Annette Gordon-Reed, as a part of the Pulitzer Prizes Centennial Campfires Initiative.

In the mid-1840s, Warner McCary, an ex-slave from Mississippi, claimed a new identity for himself, traveling around the nation as Choctaw performer "Okah Tubbee". He soon married Lucy Stanton, a divorced white Mormon woman from New York, who likewise claimed to be an Indian and used the name "Laah Ceil". Together, they embarked on an astounding, sometimes scandalous journey across the United States and Canada, performing as American Indians

Jessica Lahey’s The Gift of Failure focuses on the critical school years when parents must learn to allow their children to experience the disappointment and frustration that occur from life’s inevitable problems so that they can grow up to be successful, resilient, and self-reliant adults.

Today we speak with Jessica Luther, author of "Unsportsmanlike Conduct." Jessica Luther is and independent writer and investigative journalist living in Austin, Texas. Her work on sports and culture has appeared in the Texas Observer and the Austin Chronicle, and at Sport Illustrated, Texas Monthly, Vice Sports, Guardian Sport, and Bleacher Report. Luther's work gained national attention in August 2015 when writing for Texas Monthly; she and Dan Solomon broke open the story about a Baylor football player on trial for sexual assault, a case known by only a few in the community and not reported in the media for nearly two years.

Today we discuss the results of the 2016 Presidential Election. Our listeners call in and share their post election feelings. We are also joined in studio by Dr. Damon Cann and Dr. Michael Lyons, Associate Professors from the Utah State University Political Science Department. To join in this conversation, you can still email us at upraccess@gmail.com.

In 2015 the number of visitors to Yellowstone exceeded four million for the first time. David Quammen, writing in the May 2016 edition of National Geographic magazine, asks "Can we hope to preserve, in the midst of modern America, any such remnant of our continent's primordial landscape, any such sample of true wildness-a gloriously inhospitable place, full of predators and prey, in which nature is still allowed to be red in tooth and claw? Can that sort of place be reconciled with human demands and human convenience? Time alone, and our choices, will tell. But if the answer is yes, the answer is Yellowstone."

Today on Access Utah we discuss the companion volume to the international bestseller Letters of Note. It’s an assortment of correspondence that spans centuries and place--and an array of human emotions--written by the famous, the not-so-famous, and the downright infamous. Among this selection are an Egyptian customer complaint (written on a clay tablet); a hungover Jane Austen’s report on a ball; an American intelligence officer’s letter to his young son on Hitler’s letterhead; an invitation from John Lennon to Eric Clapton to join his band; and Albus Dumbledore’s rejection of a Muggle’s application for a teaching position at Hogwarts.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump rises above Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and independent candidate Evan McMullin in Utah, according to national polls. Incumbent Republican Gov. Gary Herbert holds nearly a 40-point lead over Democratic challenger Mike Weinholtz as election day approaches. And Utah Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz says he's received death threats over comments made about a new FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails.

Cache County voters are deciding the following question: Should a Cache Water District be created? We’ll talk about it next time on Access Utah. Logan Herald Journal reporter Clayton Gefre will give us some historical context. Then Dave Rayfield, Board Member with Bear River Land Conservancy, will tell us why he thinks voters should vote “yes” and Zach Frankel, Executive Director of Utah Rivers Council, will tell us why he thinks voters should vote “no.” Whether you’re a Cache County voter or not, water issues are front-and-center in our minds all over Utah.

What’s in a name? Today we’ll explore that question. We’re asking you: What do you think of your name? What was your thought process in naming your children? Are there names that are passed down in your family? Have you ever wanted to change your name? Did you? What’s the most unusual or distinctive name you’ve encountered? How does your name affect you? How do you think your name is perceived?

BYU English Professor, Chris Crowe, is an award-winning author of books for young adults about the Civil Rights era. He recently gave a couple of talks on the USU campus in Logan as a part of the USU Department of English Speaker series. Crowe is the author of several books, most notably MISSISSIPPI TRIAL, 1955, which won several awards, including the 2003 International Reading Association's Young Adult Novel Award. His nonfiction book, GETTING AWAY WITH MURDER: THE TRUE STORY OF THE EMMETT TILL CASE, was an Jane Addams Honor book. His first children's book, JUST AS GOOD: HOW LARRY DOBY CHANGED AMERICA'S GAME, appeared in 2012. His newest book, a historical novel DEATH COMING UP THE HILL, is about the tumultuous year of 1968.

What do you do when God dies?

We’re approaching the 100th anniversary of the U.S. entrance into WWI. Today on Access Utah, we’ll discuss the Great War and how affected Utahns. We’ll speak with Allan Kent Powell, Editor of “Utah and the Great War: The Beehive State and the World War I Experience.” We’ll also speak with E.B. Wheeler and Jeffery Bateman who recently wrote a fiction book called "No Peace with the Dawn: A Novel of the Great War."

“What does it take to really save nature?” writer and environmentalist Mary Ellen Hannibal asks in Citizen Scientist: Searching for Heroes and Hope in an Age of Extinction. In this wide-ranging adventure—part memoir, part investigation— Mary Ellen Hannibal makes a deeply personal case for the necessity of citizen scientists, sharing stories from boaters recording whale sightings and tracking migration paths to the volunteers whose redwood restoration projects may provide our best hope in slowing an unprecedented mass extinction. Hannibal traces the citizen science movement to its roots: the centuries-long tradition of amateur observation by writers and naturalists. In addition to facing the loss of species, Hannibal also chronicles her confrontation with personal loss; prompted by her novelist father’s sudden death, she examines her own past—and discovers a family legacy of looking closely at the world. Both the story of a woman who rescued herself from an odyssey of loss and a blueprint for ordinary citizens

Language is always changing -- and we tend not to like it. We understand that new words must be created for new things, but the way English is spoken today rubs many of us the wrong way. Whether it’s the use of literally to mean “figuratively” rather than “by the letter,” or the way young people use LOL and like, or business jargon like What’s the ask? -- it often seems as if the language is deteriorating before our eyes.

Today we’ll get a view of our presidential election from journalists and academics from Ukraine and Georgia and from a journalism professor here in the U.S. We’ll talk about media independence and bias; how Mr. Trump and Secretary Clinton are viewed in eastern Europe; how the debate about Russian president Vladimir Putin is playing in Georgia and Ukraine and elsewhere; and we’ll ask our panel about vote rigging and the integrity of elections.

At the height of the Korean War, President Harry S. Truman committed a gaffe that sent shock waves around the world. When asked by a reporter about the possible use of atomic weapons in response to China's entry into the war, Truman replied testily, "The military commander in the field will have charge of the use of the weapons, as he always has." This suggested that General Douglas MacArthur, the willful, fearless, and highly decorated commander of the American and U.N. forces, had his finger on the nuclear trigger. A correction quickly followed, but the damage was done; two visions for America's path forward were clearly in opposition, and one man would have to make way.

Folklorist Jens Lund recently gave the 2016 Fife Honor Lecture at USU, presented by the USU Folklore Program and USU Department of English. His lecture was titled “‘I Done What I Could’: Occupational Folk Poetry in the Pacific Northwest.” The Fife Honor Lecture is an honorary lecture given every year in honor of Austin and Alta Fife, folklorists, documentarians, and founders of the Fife Folklore archives.

We continue our occasional series, Our Favorite Books, with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s enduringly popular creation Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock Holmes is thriving on television and continues to occupy an important place in popular culture. The famous fictional detective even figures prominently in the debate over evolution vs. intelligent design. We’ll look at how the character has changed over the years (and how our response to him has changed) and we’ll ask what Sherlock Holmes means in our culture today. We’ll also explore Utah and Mormon connections and hear sound clips from radio, television and film. We’ll ask you to tell us your favorite Sherlock Holmes book, film or television series.

Our guest for the hour today is Matthew Garrett, author of “Making Lamanites: Mormons, Native Americans, and the Indian Student Placement Program, 1947-2000” (University of Utah Press).